Woman declared dead enjoys 'wonderful sleep'

A French woman pronounced "very certainly clinically dead" woke up 14 hours later to declare: "I had a wonderful sleep." Doctors had asked the family of Lydia Paillard (60) to consider switching off her life support but they had delayed.

A French woman pronounced "very certainly clinically dead" woke up 14 hours later to declare: "I had a wonderful sleep." Doctors had asked the family of Lydia Paillard (60) to consider switching off her life support but they had delayed.

Mrs Paillard walked into a clinic in Bordeaux for chemotherapy, but went blue, and fell into a coma. "We were told that she wouldn't come back," said Sebastien her sons.

She was transferred on a respirator to another wing and staff there noticed signs of brain activity.

"To think we were about to give permission to kill our mother," Mr Paillard said.